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Henry
Biography Henry's precise origins are uncertain. The story goes that he was built from drawings stolen from Sir Nigel Gresley at Doncaster about 1919 by an anonymous locomotive builder who held a grudge against him and desired to steal a march on him. His spy, however, blundered and took the wrong drawings; they were for an experimental engine but were supposed to be for the new "Pacific" locomotives Gresley was designing at the time. The thief realized his mistake too late and Henry was built, with many resulting flaws and a superficial likeness to Gresley's Pacifics. The thief was delighted to unload his "White Elephant" on to the first desperate customer who came along - The Fat Controller. He had intended to buy a Robinson "Atlantic" of the Great Central Railway but was tricked into purchasing Henry in 1922 instead and had no choice but to keep him due to the railway being desperate for locomotives. Henry was vain and stopped in the Ballahoo Tunnel and refused to come out, citing that his paintwork would be spoiled by the rain. After several attempts to move him failed, he was bricked up in the tunnel until Gordon broke down while pulling the Express. As Edward was unable to move the train himself, the Fat Controller offered to let Henry out of the tunnel to help. Henry eagerly accepted. Henry performed very well and the Fat Controller promised him a new coat of paint since Henry's existing paintwork had been spoiled more by his stay in the tunnel than it would have been by the rain. Henry asked to be painted blue like Edward. However, many people confused him with Gordon, to the bigger engine's annoyance. The matter was worsened after a trip to the Works when Henry was given spares of Gordon's buffers. Sometime before 1935, Henry, when again offered new paint, chose green and so ended the Gordon/Henry confusion. Unfortunately, Henry was to suffer humiliation when he was hosed with water by an elephant he frightened. After Gordon and James had suffered humiliations of their own (and all three had become thoroughly fed up having to do their own shunting and fetch their own coaches), the big engines went on strike. The Fat Controller naturally disapproved of this nonsense and locked them up in the shed for several days, leaving them miserable. However, they were let out again after promising to work hard. The poor engine and his system, which was already finicky at best due to design flaws, never really recovered from his stay in the tunnel. Henry developed steaming problems, which he complained about constantly, though he found little sympathy, especially when it caused him to run late. A period came when the Main Line engines were supplied with poor delivery of coal and Henry had a very difficult time of it indeed. He had the strength to pull trains only sporadically, in spite of numerous parts replacements. At last, the Fat Controller looked into it personally and asked for the opinion of Henry's fireman, who told him about the poor coal and Henry's firebox being too small to burn it efficiently. The fireman also suggested purchasing the high-grade Welsh coal used on the Great Western Railway. Sir Topham Hatt agreed to purchase some in order to give Henry "a fair chance". When the Welsh coal came, Henry's performance vastly improved, such that he was comparable to Gordon. He continued to use the coal until he had a collision with a goods train at Killdane while pulling the Flying Kipper and was sent to Crewe to be rebuilt in 1935. Henry was rebuilt into a Stanier 5MT. The Fat Controller had connections with Sir William Stanier, so this is likely the reason he managed to get Henry rebuilt so quickly. Besides being given a new shape, Henry also received a larger firebox, allowing him to use regular coal again. After returning, Henry was added to the rotation for the Express and pulled it so well that he made Gordon jealous. Gordon tried to get even by rudely criticizing Henry for whistling loudly at stations, but he had to eat his words later that day after his own whistle valve jammed open. Sometime later, Henry was taking a slow train. As he passed under a bridge, three boys he had assumed to be railfans dropped stones onto him and his coaches. He paid them out on his return journey by "sneezing" ashes that collected in his smokebox at them. He delivered the train from Sodor to The Region on it's opening day in 1952 and has regularly taken trains there since. Personality Henry is generally well-behaved and friendly, but is sometimes arrogant. Henry is at heart, a very hard worker, but his frequent bouts of illness hinder his work. His illnesses almost always have something to do with his boiler. Unlike Gordon and James, Henry does not mind pulling trucks, especially as he is a mixed traffic engine, although when he is given the job of pulling the express whenever Gordon is unable to, this can get to his smokebox and he can act full of himself. In the television series, Henry has been portrayed with a much kinder and softer personality. He has been shown as a nature-lover as evidenced in Henry's Forest. This personality carried on throughout the more recent series with Henry being occasionally a tree-hugging engine too as he tried to prevent the tall pine tree and the wishing tree from being cut down. In the newer series, Henry is portrayed as not too bright and sometimes really worrisome, as shown in multiple episodes. This worrisome personality was also featured in The Adventure Begins, which greatly contrastswitho the original version of The Sad Story of Henry. He has shown instances when he was either moody, arrogant and vain, but proud, strong and witty, much like the earlier series. Henry is the most likely to be respectful to smaller engines such as Edward, Percy, Thomas, and Toby on a regular basis. He does not frequently antagonize his fellow friends, and usually shows remorse for his actions. Because of this, he is often considered much more friendly than Gordon and James. Technical Details Basis Henry's history is unusual. The Fat Controller had intended to buy a Robinson Atlantic of the Great Central Railway, but was swindled and instead received Henry. He was built from rejected plans for Sir Nigel Gresley's A1 with the added design of an LNER C1 Atlantic. The plans were stolen from Gresley by an anonymous rival. The resulting engine had a superficial likeness to Gordon, but aesthetics were as far as this went. Henry in this shape developed performance issues from flaws in the design, compounded by his stay in the tunnel. Henry was a bad steamer: with good-quality coal he could get enough heat to make plenty of steam, but when there was a poor lot delivered, his undersized firebox could not hold enough coal to make a proper fire. On advice from Henry's fireman, the Fat Controller ordered high-grade Welsh Coal, which made an appreciable difference in Henry's performance. When Henry suffered an accident and severe damage that winter, the opportunity was taken to send him to Crewe, where he was rebuilt an LMS Stanier 5MT "Black Five" 4-6-0. After "The Eight Famous Engines," Henry's LMS Stanier 5MT tender was replaced by a Fowler tender. In the television series, Henry has always had a one-window cab with an LNER-style tender. The differences between his shapes were removed splashers, the Belpaire firebox replacing the tapered, added steampipes beneath his smokebox, and a top feed. This was done to ease the changeover to his "Black Five"-esque appearance. However, Henry kept his parallel boiler instead of the tapered one that the Black Fives had. He later regained a full set of splashers in Series 2 onwards. The grey and purple tender engines are also members of this class. Eighteen members of the class have survived into preservation. Several members of this class survived until the end of steam on British Railways in 1968. Two class members, 44781 and 44871, were used to haul the Fifteen Guinea Special on August 11, 1968. 44871 has survived into preservation whereas sister engine 44781 was purchased for use in the film, The Virgin Soldiers, and was scrapped after being used in a train scene disguised as a continental locomotive. Livery Henry is painted in NWR apple green with red and yellow lining. His number is painted on the sides of his tender in yellow with red lining and the lining around his cab windows is yellow. He was repainted in NWR sky blue with red and yellow lining at the end of "The Three Railway Engines" and remained so until the beginning of Troublesome Engines when he was given back his own livery to avoid him being too similar to Gordon. Appearances * The Grand Opening * Jinty's Fire Rescue Trivia * Henry's model is from Sodor Island 3D (the TS12 and the TS10 versions) * When he says that Katelyn is his sister in his first appearance, Katelyn is actually Henry's half-sister since he wasn't built as a LMS Black 5 at first but was rebuilt into one later on in his life. Category:Steam Engines Category:Tender Engines Category:Sodor Engines Category:North Western Railway Category:Indian Valley Railway